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Relaxing immigration restrictions could greatly
improve the well-being of people in developing countries, with little effect
on wages

Most developed countries have foreign aid
programs that aim to alleviate poverty and foster economic growth in less
developed countries, but with very limited success. A large body of evidence
indicates that the root of the economic development problem is cross-country
differences in the productivity of labor. If workers are much more
productive in one country than in another, the obvious way to help people in
less developed countries is to allow them to help themselves by moving to
places where they can be more productive. Yet immigration laws severely
constrain such movement.